My daughter is almost 18 months and has a voracious appetite except for when it comes time for veggies. When she was eating baby food from the jars she would eat the carrots, sweat potatoes, green beans, and all squash. Now that she is strictly on table food I can't get her to go near the veggies. I have tried all sorts of veggies steamed, boiled, baked, even pureed to mimick the jar veggies and she still won't touch them. She just sees the veggies and instantly turns up her nose to them without even tasting. Luckily she loves fruit and I have her drink one Fruitables juice box a day (one serving of veggies) so she does get some vegetable nutrition but I wish I could get her to eat more. Any suggestions to help get her to like her veggies?

You don't try to "get" her to eat her veggies. You keep having 1 piece of vegetable on her plate, you eat family dinners with her where you are eating all of your food, including vegetables, and you ignore that the piece of broccoli sits there, untouched, and you throw it out. Again. Until the day when she picks it up and licks it. And you continue on with your dinner and your conversation with her and your husband as if nothing happened. And then a week later perhaps she takes a bite. and then for 3 weeks she won't look at the broccoli, but eventually she eats it. and either likes it or not. and that will probably change over the years.

Go on this nutritionist's website to learn about her philosophy: Ellyn Satter (ellynsatter.com I think) and also buy her book Child of Mine, Feeding with Love and Good Sense. So you can have a child who eats well, eats a variety of foods, but isn't harrassed and harangued (like we mostly were) to eat, take one more bite, have airplane spoons filled with all types of foods thrust into our mouths, etc.)

A child needs to see a food 10 times on her plate before she'll try it. And then another gazillion more times before she considers it a food she 'likes' and then the list of foods they like changes, too.

a child will eat when they are hungry, so don't worry if sometimes she eats more than other times. but do NOT allow a food binge to get into a "I only eat white foods" issue - so, a child who only likes mac and cheese and yogurt will become a child who ONLY eats mac and cheese and yogurt if that's all you feed her because that's all she eats. so she gets to have mac and cheese once a week, the other times she gets a wide variety of meals, and she eats what she eats, doesn't what she doesn't. but eventually she'll try things.

really, read her website! I learned so MUCH about the concepts of children younger than 5 years old and eating.

Did you know that a child might LOVE something at home, but won't eat it if they don't know the person who is feeding it to them? Suddenly my niece saying "i don't like Aunt CT.DC's cream cheese makes so much more sense (at 2 yrs old) - because really, it was philadelphia cream cheese, just like her mother gets!

Exposure without pressure to foods works best. Like CT-DC said, give her broccoli, no pressure, let her feel/explore it until she feels like trying it.

Thing with the processed baby food, it tastes very different than real veggies. So it's a whole new game to her.

until the time she actually eats the veggies, make food and sneak it in. Meatballs/loaf can have all sorts of veggies mixed in with the meat. Sometimes we mix food with plain yogurt for DS. The boy doesn't like rice, but if it's flavored from our meal he'll eat it-sometimes.

We have enough stress in our lives at work, that I refuse to make home any more stressful. If someone doesn't like what's for dinner, oh well, don't eat, you're not going to starve. I hated being forced to stay at the dinner table at my cousin's house until I finished my milk (which I'm allergic to)-doesn't establish healthy eating habits.

I'm sure your daughter will learn to like veggies again, let her play and explore them.

A friend of mine said her pediatrician suggested adding raw spinach to the water when you make spaghetti/pasta. The nutrients from the spinach will leach into the pasta during cooking. And if she will eat a few small pieces of the spinach with the pasta, so much the better, but otherwise at least you know the tortolini or spaghetti will have some extra nutrients.

I know there's some controversy surrounding this book, but Jerry Seinfeld's wife wrote a cookbook called "Deceptively Delicious" that has recipes that are appealing to kids with veggies "hidden" in them. I can see both sides of the issue and I think that there may be a time and place for these kinds of recipes. You can always make something from the book and then stick some broccoli (or another veggie) on the plate next to it. Someone gave it to me as a gift and I haven't used it yet (my kids are too young still), but I can foresee a time when I may opt to use it. Hiding squash in cookies or a pasta sauce seems fairly benign to me--as long as "real" veggies still have a presence on their plates. In the end, they're getting the nutrition they need whether they know it or not, but have to option of trying a veggie in its "real" form. Anyway...just an option.

I have a similar problem with my DD, but it's fruit she won't eat. She'll eat the purees, she'll eat freeze dried fruit, she'll eat it if it is mashed up with the rest of her food, but fresh fruit - no way. It is driving our daycare provider batty - She doesn't understand why a baby wouldn't want fruit, since it is sweet etc. I am trying to keep offering her fruit, but it can make anyone a little crazy when an otherwise voracious eater won't eat. Will your daughter eat veggies if they are a sauce, like pasta with tomato sauce? Because then you can get her at least some veggies that way.

Amy-lynn, keep adding 4 pieces of whatever fruit you have to her plate or high chair tray. Keep doing it, don't pressure her to eat it, just have it there and someday she'll eat it! Especially when you do, with such gusto and obviously enjoy it, because you are her #1 role model (you and Dad and big brother/sister). Really, we forget that our children watch what we do .... which is why the family meal is so important. Also, make sure you are eating the fruit like she does, not having a bright red round apple with skin on and she gets little tiny pieces of she's not sure what. She won't learn that you are eating what she's eating unless you have them in a bowl, give her 4 and you eat from the same bowl. Now, obviously, you'll still eat apples straight, just sometimes eat them like she gets them.

Also, please do do NOT say "I know you won't eat these apples, but I'm going to give them to you anyway" in a resigned voice, lol.

Seriously, I can't BELIEVE how many parents and teachers say things like "I know you won't eat these apples, but I'm going to give them to you anyway" orI know you're just going to throw this block if I give it to you... and then the child does, the parent is angry... but am I surprised????

First of all, children understand WAY earlier than they can speak - watch how your 10 month old or 12 month old child watches you when you're talking, and how their eyes go to the object you're talking about. Or when you are saying "where are DS's shoes?" and then she toddles over with them????? (Our 12 and 13 month olds can "go get a toy for the baby" in our classroom without skipping a beat.... and, yes, that's one way to involve all children in our childcare center together of a variety of ages!)

and second, why would you way something that creating a self-fulfilling prophecy?

Thanks CT-DC. I do try the I'll eat a piece, you eat a piece, with all the yumm-yumm faces I can manage. But she is at the "sharing" stage, so she just holds her piece out for me to eat (I'm pretty sure she's thinking "If you like it so much, you can have it") and if I'm not close enough for her to pretty much mash it at my mouth, she drops it on the floor. I'm not that worried, but I have no idea what to tell my daycare provider when she reports back at the end of the day that DD still won't eat her fruit. I know that at some point she will, and since she eats everything else, with gusto, she is not malnourished, but there are times I wish I could just wave a magic wand and she'd eat the darned fruit at daycare.

Along the lines of what CT was saying--NEVER tell your kid that YOU don't like a certain food. That's a guarantee that the kid won't eat it. One of my friends tells her kids that she's "allergic" to the things she doesn't like (when questioned by said kids about why she's not having any) and can't eat them or she'll get sick and emphasizes how much she wishes she could have some too.

I've also witnessed one of my friends saying to her 2 year old son, "you don't like that, so I'm not giving you any." Wow--what a way to ingrain not trying things if you don't like them the first time! If the kid has tried it, didn't like it, but asks for it again, GIVE IT TO HIM! He may spit it out and make a face and decide that he STILL doesn't like it, but at least give him the opportunity to change his mind!

I did get DD to eat corn last night although that is one of the least nutritious veggies. Hey it's a start. I've been putting broccoli on her plate every night. She will put it in her mouth but takes it out and throws it on the floor. Same with carrots. Unfortunately she does not like tomato sause so she eats her pasta with olive oil and garlic. My husband and I are adamant about eating dinner together as a family and that DD eats what we eat so she does see us eating and enjoying the same food we are giving her. I will try some of the suggestions about sneaking in the veggies and I will definitely look for those yogurt blends.

Miss JB, it is a long time ago, but do I ever remember those days! I would make tiny vegetable cakes - basically the same way you will make fish cakes. I have no recipe, but I would mix about 2 - 3 cups of grated vegetables (squeeze the water out of potatoes and zucchini first) with an egg and a couple of table spoons of flour. Just enough so they hold together. Then I would make small flat cakes and fry them in a pan sprayed with non stick cooking spray. Cooking them first on one side and gently turn them over (they are fragile) and cook them on the second side. Sometimes I would bake them on a cookie sheet also sprayed with non stick cooking spray, and turn them half way. I can't tell you the exact times, since it was really trial and error for me. I started with a mixture of potatoes and carrots, then later slowly added sweet potatoes, zucchini and mashed green peas. I know green vegetables like broccoli and spinach are very nutritious, but I think are much too strong tasting for a toddler. Sometimes I would just cook (loosing some nutients) all the veggies and mash them up with a fork, add the egg and a bit of flour - mix well and continue as above. But my babies seemed to like the other way better.As for fruit, I started with a few grapes cut in half and the seeds removed. Later I mixed the grapes with blueberries cut in half. Then small pieces of apples or pears. Always in the same "fruit bowl". One thing I could not get them to eat was bananas. I would juice oranges and carrots and feed them with a spoon, until they willingly drank the juice. Good luck!

Let her dip! My son is almost 2 and he, too, snubs his nose at most veggies. I found a great natural, lower-fat, yogurt-based blue cheese salad dressing (Boathouse Farms) and he is happy to dip just about anything in it. What also works sometimes is to sprinkle grated cheese (Romano) on the veggies. They think it is "fun."